poplib for multihomed machines

[Elbert Lev]

Donn!

> If the practical issues can be resolved by factoring the
> network connection out into a separate function, then that's
> a practical solution, don't you think?

Fixing this particular piece of code is very simple. But let's talk
about big system. If all classes in standard library are written like
POP3 class (and most of them are) you will "tailor for your needs"
most of them. Not subclass but copy and modify! So the standard
library becomes a "reference material". The classes in standard
library use other pieces of standard library (who does not?). If these
pieces change you have to track the changes and incorporate into your
code. (if you subclass in most cases subclased class takes care of
modifications).

I'm not talking about a casual script, which runs on you PC and copies
files from one directory to a backup storage. I'm talking about realy
big system...

So the answer is NO. I don't think that copy and paste is the best
solution. In other words if you are in OOP world do not use concrete
classes.